Late Night Oscar Diaries from Lois Vossen

Lobby of the formerly named Kodak Theater - now called the Hollywood and Highland Center

We pass along this fun blog post from the ITVS Beyond the Box Blog.

Independent Lens Series Producer Lois Vossen attended Sunday night’s Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She was there to support two nominated films for Best Documentary feature: Independent Lens’ Hell and Back Again and the ITVS-funded If a Tree Falls (which aired on POV). The documentary Undefeated wound up taking the prize. Still, Lois had a blast and as the evening came to a close, she phoned in (literally) this recap via the BTB hotline. Here are the highlights….

Lois Vossen looking quite glamorous - wearing...let me guess...Atelier Versace? Vera Wang?

Hi there! Well it was a great night. The debate is on whether or not Billy Crystal was funny and whether or not the show was well paced. As we were leaving, I ran into Wim Wenders who made Pina and I went over and spoke with him and he said “I’m very, very sorry that Hell and Back Again lost because it was a magnificent film and I would have been honored to have lost to Hell and Back Again, honored!” So I introduced him to Fiona Otway who edited the film.

Overall, I thought the show was fun. Maybe not the best Oscars of all time but certainly best for me, maybe because I was there! The show played quickly and seem to fly by. Tony Bennett played at the Governors ball afterwards and he sounded great.

Right now, people are scattering off to after parties at Vanity Fair and Elton John’s thing. We’re getting together back at the hotel with a friend of ours who’s a member of the Academy. Interesting to hear how it played on Television versus inside the theatre. Apparently Circque du Soleil played better in the theatre.

Also, I was right in front of Sasha Baron Cohen when he dumped the ashes on Ryan Seacrest! I thought it was really funny but apparently that pissed off a lot of people? Maybe you had to be there because watching it live was just silly and unexpected.
Of course, the women all looked fabulous!

Ernest Borgnine's Birthday

Today is Ernest Borgnine's birthday (he's 95). With the Oscar nominations announced today it reminds us that Ernest won an Academy Award in 1955 for his portrayal of Marty in the movie of the same name. One of our These Amazing Shadows interview subjects, Amy Heckerling, (director of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, Look Who's Talking and the most recent episode of the TV show Gossip Girl) is good friends with Ernest and in the above video talks about why the movie Marty is so important to her.

Even though Mr. Borgnine had a marvelous motion picture career he is known best to a certain generation as Lt. Commander Quinton McHale in the television show, McHale's Navy. When I was a kid - me and all my friends definitely thought he was a very cool guy in that role. It was only when I got older did I realize that he was such a fine and successful movie actor.

Marty was selected to the National Film Registry in 1994.
Mr. Borgnine also appears in the following films that are on the National Film Registry:
From Here to Eternity (selected in 2002)
Johnny Guitar (selected in 2008)
The Wild Bunch (selected in 1999)

Amy Heckerling's film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was selected to the National Film Registry in 2005.

Awards, Accolades and Trophies

Louisville's International Festival of Film Best Documentary Award - a Louisville Slugger.

I have very mixed feelings about film awards. On one hand they are fun (the anticipation, debates and awareness they create) and competition is as American as an award winning apple pie. On the other hand awards are subjective, capricious and often just silly popularity contests (though there is nothing wrong with being popular!).

Over the past eleven months of our distribution of These Amazing Shadows (TAS) we have been faced with making decisions that qualify or disqualify us for Oscar and Emmy consideration. We elected early on to be part of Sundance Selects which brought with it a special one month Video-On-Demand release during the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. That VOD release disqualified us from Oscar consideration for 2011. You may be thinking, "Dudes, an Oscar Best Documentary nomination for TAS is a rather remote possibility anyway." - and we would pretty much agree with you. At the time of the decision there was a little irrational voice inside my brain warning not to lose our Oscar consideration, "Don't do it! You never know! TAS could be a contender!" I quickly and easily quieted that high pitched irritating voice and we made what we thought was a good business decision. We disqualified ourselves from Emmy consideration because we elected to release our DVD/Blu-ray on November 22nd, which is prior to our national PBS/Independent Lens broadcast on December 29th (check local listings for exact date/time). That is an Emmy no-no. We balanced our chances for an Emmy nomination (yes, that high pitched voice of warning did return) against getting our DVD/Blu-ray out for the holiday shopping season.

Screen grab from our iphone video of accepting the Savannah Film Festival Best Documentary Award.

As they say - when you close one door another one opens - These Amazing Shadows recently won two awards: Best Documentary at Louisville's International Festival of Film and the Savannah Film Festival. We thank both festivals for the honor and attention they have given our doc. The Louisville's International Festival of Film award is really cool and unusual - it is a Louisville Slugger bat with an award inscription (please see it above). Paul says he is going to print up a bumper sticker that says, "My slugger can beat the hell out of your Oscar!" As a note to my family and friends who notice that only Paul's name is on the bat - most festivals for some reason cannot wrap their brains around the notion of co-directors. Sometimes my name is left off and sometime Paul's name is left off websites, awards, etc.

Paul and I were present for the Savannah Film Festival (really great festival) awards presentation. It was a fun affair with about 900 people in the audience. As Paul and I take turns addressing special events on behalf of TAS it was Paul's turn and he gave a very good acceptance speech. I was on stage shooting the whole thing with my iphone much to the delight of the audience (see photo above). We will post that video soon.

Happy Birthday, Debbie!

Photo taken by Doug Blush in 2010 during a performance by Ms. Reynolds at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Today is Debbie Reynolds birthday. We wish her a very joyful and fun day.

Debbie has two films on the National Film Registry:
Singin' in the Rain (1952), selected to the Registry in 1989.
How the West Was Won (1962), selected to the Registry in 1997.

She was nominated for a best actress Oscar in 1964 for The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Her daughter, Carrie Fisher, also has a film on the National Film Registry:
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), selected to the Registry in 1989.

Interesting facts:
- They both had films named to the Registry during its first year of selections - 1989.
- They are the only mother/daughter combination to have films on the Registry...as far as we know. You could and should try to prove us wrong by checking the Unofficial National Film Registry Personnel Credits list.
- Debbie and Carrie share the experience of being teenagers when they made their first important movie: Debbie in Singin' in the Rain (1952), and Carrie in Shampoo (1975).

Debbie as Kathy Selden in "Singin' in the Rain."